[Usability]Home and trash icons disappear

[ahimsa <ahimsa onetel net uk>]

Hi all
This is the first time I've posted to this list and may therefore be covering 
some ground already well-traversed ...
There are times while using RH 8.0 that the only two icons on my desktop Home 
and Trash just disappear. I can access the contents of the Home folder via 
the terminal, but the icons themselves just vamoose. They usually do return 
and in the same position again, but it is often frustrating and more than 
just a little puzzling.
Is this a bug or something local to my own machine?
Cheers
Andrew